No such thing as society?

Rating: Null/10 (7 November 2002)

28 Days Later uses on of the standard set-ups of fiction, and it is always interesting to see how such a film develops. All post-apocalyptic films have a certain sociological outlook inherent in the set-up, yet I found the particularly bleak message of this film disturbing.
First of all, I found the film itself to be tense, dramatic and interesting. It delights in it's low budget, and the grainy digital photography was surprisingly effective. It was also very much a British film. At times the film was disturbing, but it also had some nice touches of humour.
Remember how Margaret Thatcher is purported to have said, "There is no such thing as society, only individuals and families?" Well, I thought that this film - perhaps unknowingly - presented a nihilistic vision very close to Thatcher's comment. In this film, the informal "family" that is formed amongst the central characters is happy and contented, yet the possibility of the formation of wider communities seems bleak. Perhaps this is the way it actually would be in Britain under such circumstances - in which case, we are all doomed.